#colossuem

The people were just as beautiful, the weather was scorching, the food was amazing be it a back street bar or a restaurant on the main tourist strip.

We visited the Vatican City which although extremely busy was a must see (not too many photos included as don’t want to spoil it!)  simply spectacular .  The Trevi Fountain both by day and night was impressive.

The Spanish Steps led to the Pincio Terrace which offered breath taking views across Rome and we were rewarded with the most stunning sunset I have ever seen.

Dinner was had opposite the Colosseum, again another beautiful sight, made more sensational with the sun going down.

This is only my first trip to Rome and I will go back again.  These photos are just a few of the thousand or more that I took.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them.

LIFE IN ROME ITALY, MY TRIP TO THE COLOSSEUM #2. PICTURES ONLY

When in Rome, get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of history, watch out for pickpockets and get fed up with guys trying to sell you selfie sticks. The city at the heart of the once great Roman empire has been around for millennia and the events that have taken place there have ultimately affected the course of world history as we know it.

               My first day in Rome was a hot, sunny day full of walking tours and seeing the sights. Quite a few others from the bus and me had booked in to do a walking tour of the historic sites during the day. The tour, run by a hilarious, charismatic Irishman by the name of Hugo took around 4 hours and led us past sights such as the Circus Maximus, the Jewish Ghetto, the Mouth of Truth, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and much more, before finally winding up outside perhaps the most famous Roman ruin, the Colosseum. My favourite place was probably the Pantheon, a huge church with a single room topped with what is still the world’s largest unreinforced dome, despite being over 2000 years old. The Romans were smart dudes, to this day they still don’t know how that dome was made, incredible, Google it, visit it; it will knock your socks off.

Like any walking tour I felt like I got something out of it, learnt some of the history behind the city and instead of just walking around going, “that’s cool,” I got to know a bit of what I was looking at, worth paying for. Especially worth paying for when some of the roman history is just hilarious, mainly regarding the crazy emperors, who all seems to have some weird and wacky ideas, which, because they were all-powerful often ended in insane and outrageously disturbing and hilarious events taking place. Don’t believe me, Google some.

               After the walking tour, a group of us, Charlie, Lindsey, Kirsten, Tash and I all grabbed a typically Italian meal of pastas and pizzas and a nice drop of wine, before heading off across town to do the night tour we had booked ourselves into to do. The night tour is meant to be done in conjunction with the day tour and takes you off the track a bit, to places the main tours don’t, such as places to eat and drink, different artists and the works littered around the city, as well as a few of the more mainstream attractions such as the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Overall this tour wasn’t nearly as good as the first but our guide was pretty tired and seemed rather monotone and this is this and that is that, blah blah blah about the whole thing, which doesn’t really help but, hey you win some you lose some.

               My second day in Rome was an early one. We had been told by our guide on the bus coming into the city that the museum at the Vatican was free on  the final Sunday of every month, which lucky for us happened to fall within our time there, so naturally we had to go. The museum itself opened at 9am but like anything in Europe vaguely touristy there is going to be a line. One of the girls in our little group had been told by someone at their hostel that if you want to get in promptly you need to get there no later than 7am, yup that’s not a typo, two hours before it opens. So that’s what we did, set out alarms for horrendous o’clock and as the sun was coming up and the air was still crisp and cold, dragged our sorry bones down to the world’s smallest country and largest church too see the conjoined world famous art history collection, welcome to the Vatican!

               The wait in line went by pretty quick, I guess we were all just pretty good at talking shit to pass the time and before we knew it, 9am ticked over and it was a free-for-all shuffle through the great outer walls and into Vatican City and the museum. Once in we made a beeline for the famous Sistine Chapel with that stunning ceiling painted by the incredibly gifted Michelangelo. It was a sight to behold, standing there in that small single room chapel looking up at that incredibly beautiful ceiling, a real blessing to see with my own eyes. Earth without art really is eh. Sistine Chapel ticked off we wandered around the vast art collection of paintings, sculptures and statues, talking rubbish, laughing and just taking it all in.

After about an hour and a half we’d seen all we wanted to see and decided to head out of the museum and go see the grand basilica that is St. Peters. Oh, my, goodness. Never in my life have I seen any building, let alone a church that is so large, so beautiful, so breathtaking and so awe-inspiring.  While it is not the mother church of the Catholic Church, St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines, which has also been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world" and as "the greatest of all churches of Christendom." It’s dome, though 3rd largest in width behind the Pantheon in Rome and the Florence Cathedral, still stands at a whopping  total height of 136.57 metres (448.1 ft) from the floor of the basilica to the top of the external cross making it the tallest dome in the world. Standing in there under that elaborate ceiling and glorious dome you really do feel that there is more to life then you and you small, insular universe.

Outside in St. Peters Square you can really get an external sense of just how freaking massive this church and the square is, just monumentally huge. We didn't stay long outside, it was hot and there we people everywhere, so we decided to head off and find some lunch.

That afternoon we ticked off another couple of the key sights of Rome. The first is the Roman Forum, a huge rectangular site at the centre of Rome surrounded by several ancient government buildings including the palace atop Palatine Hill.  For centuries it was the centre of Roman public life: the site of elections, processions, public speeches, criminal charge, and gladiatorial matches. The heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world and in all history and is now the most important Roman archaeological dig anywhere in the world.

Our next and final site for the day was probably the most famous site in Rome, the great Colosseum, just outside the Roman Forum. Tourist hack, you can by a combination ticket for the Roman Forum and the Colosseum at the Forum where the line is much, much shorter, that way you skip the massive line at the Colosseum. That said we got in straight away and wow, just wow. Though not the best preserved site in Rome it is still very impressive and rather overwhelming when you come think about what went down inside those walls. We took some photos and stood with the hundreds of other tourist taking in the incredible spectacle before us.

That evening, after our massively full day of sightseeing, Lindsey, Kirsten, Tash and I decided to splash out and get a really nice Italian dinner which consisted of arancini balls, a pizza to share, some gorgeous tomato pasta with lobster and a delicious drop of red wine, divine, the Italians certainly know how to do food, such a ripper spread.

The next two days in Rome weren't all that eventful. My third day there I spend a whole day just organising my life, doing my washing, getting a haircut, doing a bit of shopping for a few items I needed and printing some forms, then just chilling out and skyped back home. The last day was a bit more interesting however. I met a mate, Brad, in town and from there we went for a bit of a wander around which took us via the Pantheon, which was closed unfortunately and also to a crypt where a monk had rearranged the bones of another 3700 monks in various little alcove rooms to decorate them into a bizarre and rather morbid type of art. Rather interesting and definitely quite a unique work of art, if you can call it that, still trying to make up my mind about what I think of it. Exploring done we headed back out of Rome to the camp ground where Brad was staying and where I had booked in for my last night to save myself the trip out in the morning to catch the bus. That afternoon/evening we just relaxed by the pool, went for a dip, grabbed some dinner then had a few beers before hitting the hay.

ROMAAA 3.0 <3

(Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi)